It's official, I'm over the hill. I have become a curmudgeon, and chewed out teenagers on our porch this evening. I hope our house doesn't get tp'd later on...I have a sort of love/hate relationship with Halloween. I think getting dressed up is major fun, and I love seeing all the little kids in our neighborhood all done up. On the other hand, I hate the rampant sexualization of costumes for girls and women. It's gotten so over the top and is so destructive to the development of the female psyche with healthy foundations in something other than being desirable to the opposite sex.
Also, I always thought that "Trick or Treat" meant that in order to avail oneself of candy at each house, one had to either do a trick, say a joke, something. I also appreciate a bit of interaction that isn't just the kid making a beeline for the candy and leaving. At the least, telling what he/she is meant to be is nice.
Tonight, however, took the cake as far as my experience of Halloween as the adult handing out the candy goes: two teens showed up at our door wearing street clothes, made no eye contact and went straight for the candy. Without thinking about it, I pulled the bowl away, and asked, "So, what are you dressed up as?" They looked a bit taken aback, and said, "Uh, people." "Is that the best you can do?" I asked, a bit sarcastically. They said, "Yeah." I said, "OK, but it's Halloween, you know." I gave them each two pieces of candy, told them to have a good night, and shut the door.
It's not like I was enraged or anything, but this weird gimme culture we live in sometimes really ticks me off. No please, no thank you, no even tiny attempt to join in the spirit of the thing. Just gimme the goods and don't be some irritating weird adult who wants us to talk or interact or make any damn effort at all.
grrrrr, argh.
Meantime, Hazel was wearing a pumpkin costume and looked totally adorable. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment